THE official report
of the autopsy on the body of President McKinley is given below. Doctor Harvey
D. Gaylord, pathologist of the New York State Laboratory, assisted by Doctor
Herman G. Matzinger, of the same institute, performed the examination in the
presence of the physicians and surgeons who attended the distinguished patient.
There were present besides the physicians whose names are appended to the report,
District Attorney Penney, of Buffalo, and Doctor Charles McBurney, of New York,
who was obliged to leave for home before the completion of the autopsy:
“The bullet which struck over the breastbone did
not pass through the skin and did little harm. The other bullet passed through
both walls of the stomach near its lower border. Both holes were found to be
perfectly closed by the stitches, but the tissue around each hole had become
gangrenous. After passing the stomach, the bullet passed into the back walls
of the abdomen, hitting and tearing the upper end of the kidney. This portion
of the bullet track was also gangrenous, the gangrene involving the pancreas.
The bullet has not yet been found. There was no sign of peritonitis or disease
of other organs. The heart walls were very thin. There was no evidence of any
attempt to repair by nature, and death resulted from the gangrene, which affected
the stomach around the bullet wounds, as well as the tissues around the further
course of the bullet. Death was unavoidable by any surgical or medical treatment,
and was the direct result of the bullet wound.